Saphho: three lyrics sung and danced by maidens (hetairai)

These are sung in ancient Greek with English subtitles.

"The poetry of Sappho...was lyric in the strictest sense: it was composed to be sung to the accompaniment of the lyre."

Thus David Campbell opens his fine Loeb Classic Library edition of complete Sappho.

Presented in this video clip are three Sappho lyrics, the Lobel and Page (Campbell sensibly maintains the same numbering in his edition) numbers 27, 30 and 1.

These lyrics are sung, and in the first two cases, danced, in this video by The New York Greek Drama Company, released 1988. Andrea Goodman as Sappho.....Directed by Peter Steadman, music by Eve Beglarian.

The first two songs are for weddings.....C.R. Haines "Sappho: The Poems and Fragments" (1926, page 150) sez:

"The writing of these epithalamina, or bridal songs, for friends and clients in Lesbos and elsewhere was an important and probably lucrative part of Sappho's professional work..."

...............

Sappho's sentences, even when read on a page, have a music in themselves, joining words and sounds paced "like the onflow of a never-resting stream...giving the effect of a singular continuous utterance" (Dionysius of Halicarnassus)

a bit of that art can be gleaned even by english-only readers with a transliteration and translation of the opening of the famous "Hymn to Aphrodite"
at 4:17 in this clip:

Poikilo'thron a`tha'nat Afrodita,
pai Di'os, dolo'ploke, li'ssomai' se
mh me a'saisi mh't oni'aisi da'mna, po'tnia, thumon.


Immortal Aphrodite of the broidered throne,
daughter of Zeus, weaver of wiles,
I pray thee break not my spirit with anguish and distress,
O Queen

(H.T. Wharton's literal translation)


Glittering-throned, undying Aphrodite,
Wile-weaving daughter of high Zeus, I pray thee,
Tame not my soul with heavy woe, dread mistress, Nay, nor with anguish !

(J. Addington Symonds, 1893 translation)



some notes:

On Sappho's island of Lesbos, there is a 3,000 foot mountain named Olympos, after the famous home of the gods in Thessaly.

Sappho called herself Psappho in her native Aiolic Greek.

Yes, Demetrius Phalereus (Eloc. 167) claims the epithalamia weren't sung, but his opinion is based on the rather prosaic words these poems contain--not on any musical modes or metrical argument. I rather think works like this, sung for popular audiences, would inevitably contain some elements of a less elevated style.

Sappho uses the word 'hetairai' in fragment 160 to describe her female companions--clearly the word does not have the 'courtesan' connotations it gets overlayed with at a later date

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Sappho
• ancient-Greek
• lyric
• song
• epithalamia
• Psappho
• Women-composers
• performing
• arts

[harrietmarlowe]

I don't think I've ever said how indebted I'm to you for all your postings. I follow your great, unique channel religiously (in the Apollonean sense). These epithalamia (a lapsus calami in the main text turned it into 'epithalamina') are wonderfully sung -and danced to- here. Thank you, thank you. Chaire!

Hysterographon: Thank you for the scholarly references too.

[kenzdawg]

I love your Greek postings too, keep the phalanxes coming. BTW, if there's one thing hetairai aren't it's maidens!

[soNofLeoniDasandLas]

STOP THE CURSING GENTLEMEN, SORRY I MEANT DONKEYS

[SupernautG]

@ArkoudoROMANTIC Re malaka, milas Ellinika?

[nixter888]

@ArkoudoROMANTIC Close your mouth now ..NOBODY TALK TO YOU IDIOT!!!I AM GREEK ..IDIOT!..DO YOU THINK I DON'T SPEAK MY LANGUAGE?....NOW, DO NOT ACT SMART WITH ME!...TAKE YOUR PATH!!!

[hadedorus]

@Aldameldo I have heard both Greek and non Greek sheep bleating and I assure you than none of them sounded anything like either vi or be. I cannot believe that this outrageous "Vox Graeca" argument is still in use. Is it irrational to presume that a culture, which would always adjust foreign words and names according to their own aesthetics and convenience (e.g. Ḫšayāršā to Ξέρξης) would at least do that much for humanly unpronounceable sounds and animal voices? 

[KalikaAthanasiadis]

@Lynkeas They have accents as I am sure you do when you speak English. At least they love Greek culture enough to want to do this.

[JoachimderZweite]

Looks like another cheap indian job - bollyrhea.

[EarthaKit2]

The girls in Sapphos School were'n't necessarily heteira. A great many were of good families - well educated in the acedemics.

[SupernautG]

Why does this remind me of a tampax commercial?

[mvndanvs]

Ancient Greek clothing reminds me of hindu clothing.

[AenigmaVitae]

I absolutely love it! Thank you so much for posting it! *-*